Tech Voices: Austin Luthier Brady Muckelroy

There is a natural tenacity built into the
Texas psyche that can manifest in interesting ways. In the case
of Austin-based luthier Brady Muckelroy, it took form in his
decision to build high-end custom basses in a town where 80
percent of the gigs are played on a Fender Precision, the other
20 percent being played on a Jazz Bass. But after only three
years in business, “Mucks” are showing up with great frequency
in this once bastion of bass traditionalism, and have made their
way across the U.S. and beyond.

The artistic quality and soul of a skillfully hand-built instrument
is a tangible thing to most high-end bass freaks—but when
the builder plays bass as well as Brady Muckelroy, the instrument
is crafted from a perspective few luthiers have. In addition
to laying down the solid, supportive playing that almost
pays the rent in Austin, Muckelroy is a skilled practitioner of
the art of solo bass. He seamlessly blends chords, harmonics,
tapping, slapping, muting, and blistering lines, with the fluidity
and musicality that draws comparison to such solo players
as Michael Manring, Trip Wamsley, and Steve Lawson. “To pull
off what I was trying to do musically, I had to get really good
at setting up my own bass,” says Brady. “Things had to be just
right.” As his setup skills sharpened, requests started to come
in from players who wanted their bass to play like his.

Eventually outgrowing his home-based workspace, Muckelroy
was invited by old friend Scott Beckwith (owner of Birdsong
Guitars and builder of the revamped SD Curlee line) to move
into the San Marcos, Texas shop where his real woodworking
education began. While continuing to do his setup work, Brady
learned more about the trade with the guidance of Beckwith
and head luthier Jake Goede. But his entry into custom building
was more a product of necessity than inspiration. “It never
occurred to me to build my own instruments,
but at one point, we hit a financial rough patch,
and I had to sell all of my basses,” he says. “I was
surviving playing on a borrowed P-Bass, but I
started to get encouragement from my buddies
to just build something.” With Goede’s mentor-ship,
Brady built his first bass. “It was my first
take on what is now my Ensemble Bass, which
I’ve refined quite a bit since then. But the crazy
thing was, that first bass worked! I gigged and recorded with that thing for a year.” While Brady acknowledges
a certain degree of luck, he also attributes the modest success
of his first build to his player’s perspective. “Every stage of a
build is critical, but in particular, while working on the pitch
of the neck, leveling the fingerboard, and the fretwork, I kept
thinking about how it would serve me as a player—how it
would function. It wasn’t perfect, but the flaws taught me a
lot.” In the middle of building his next two basses, an unusual
opportunity arose to build an instrument commissioned by the
Texas Music Educators Association, to be given to talk show
host Mike Huckabee. “That bass was complex; it had a three-piece
body with accent laminates and a top, set-neck construction—
it was pretty fancy. I don’t watch the show, but people
tell me they’ve seen him play it.”

At this point, Brady has built well over 100 instruments for
Birdsong and Curlee, as well as 60 custom builds since opening
Muckelroy Basses in 2011—a prodigious output for a relative
newcomer, and all hand-built. “I never rush a build, but I
hustle. There’s a fine balance between the two.” His instruments
are based on five different original designs: the Ensemble, the
Solo, the Bernal, the HMC (single-cut option available), and
upon request, the Charger, a 32"-scale model. While the body
shapes are set, each model can be built with neck-through, bolt-on,
or set-neck construction, any type of pickup configuration,
and choice of woods. Details like fret size, fingerboard radius,
and the number of strings are also open for discussion. “When
someone comes in and they don’t really know what they want,
we talk. I ask them what style they play, how many strings they
want, what color, the weight of the instrument. Usually, from
that I can get them where they want to be.” While a 34" scale is
standard, his time building Birdsong’s custom high-end short-scale
basses has given him insight into
smaller scale lengths. I personally have
played one of his 32"-scale 5-strings and was
confounded by the depth and clarity of the
low B. When pressed for the recipe, Brady
states, “The headstock back angle, break-over
angle at the bridge, as well as strings
through the body really help get the most
low end out of the shorter scale.” He also
builds 35"-scale instruments on request.

Brady Muckelroy

While working mainly with Delano, Aguilar, Nordstrand,
and Kent Armstrong custom pickups, the in-house-designed/Dave McKeen-built Muckelroy preamp is the preferred active
circuit for his basses. “I’ve played just about everything out
there, and I’ll install whatever a customer wants, but my
philosophy is that with the tone controls set flat, the bass
should sound like it’s passive. That’s what my preamp does—
set flat, it doesn’t color the tone, but you get a +3dB boost.”
The 18-volt system is 3-band, with 18dB of boost/cut centered
at 40Hz for the lows, 560Hz for the mids, and “just
under 7kHz” for the highs. “The way the lows are set, as you
boost past halfway, it’s still usable. The bandwidth gets narrower—it has a steeper slope, and it’s not pulling up that
stuff in the lower midrange.” The Muckelroy preamp is available
separately and will fit in most basses.

I’ve had the unique opportunity to check out Brady’s work
throughout his relatively short career as a luthier. Early on,
he would bring his newest builds up to the now-closed Bass
Emporium (where I was teaching) to get feedback. I played
most of his first instruments and saw his design and woodworking
skills improve. What impressed me even back then
was the “life force” his instruments seemed to have. I remember
playing one of those early basses and being floored by
the feel and responsiveness—to my ear, it sounded every
bit as good as any high-end custom bass I’d played. While
I regret not buying that one on the spot, in the years that
have passed, the instruments coming out of his shop hit
that mark with great consistency. When my trusty late-’90s
Carvin LB75 finally gave out after 15 years of being strung
up to piccolo tension, Brady was the obvious choice to build
me a new one. As a former Carvin player himself, he knew
the neck profile I wanted, and as a cutting-edge bassist in
his own right, I figured he would understand exactly what a
piccolo bass is and what it’s supposed to do. The end result
was a 33"-scale alder version of his HMC model, with a single
Nordstrand Fat Stack in the neck position. Besides being a
feathery seven pounds, the instrument sits perfectly positioned
on my body, and has amazing access to all frets. The
33" scale proved a huge benefit to the chordal approach I
focus on with this axe, and it makes single lines so easy to
play, I have to remind myself to slow down. But with that
ease, I can feel the instrument issuing a challenge: “I’m
ready—can you handle it?” Two top bassists playing Muckelroys
these days are Yoggie Musgrove (Stephen Bruton,
Ian MacLagen, Marcia Ball, Malford Milligen, Bob Schneider),
who is regularly seen playing his single-cut Ensemble
6-string, and David Piggott (Monte Montgomery), who has
sold all his other basses and is having his fourth Muckelroy
HMC built—the name he chose himself, standing for “High
Maintenance Client.”

Brady has recently taken full charge of the shop he once
shared with Birdsong, and he’s focused on bringing more of
his custom creations to life, in addition to continuing to build
short-scale Birdsongs and SD Curlees on a contract basis.